Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology

As an approach for estimation of the droplet size in the molten salt-liquid metal extraction process, a droplet formation experiment at room temperature was conducted to evaluate the applicability of the Scheele-Meister model with water-mercury system as a surrogate that is similar to the molten salt-liquid metal system. In the experiment, droplets were formed through the nozzle and the droplet size was measured using a digital camera and image analysis software. As nozzles, commercially available needles with inner diameters (ID) of 0.018cm and 0.025 cm and self-fabricated nozzles with 3-holes (ID: 0.0135 cm), 4-holes (ID: 0.0135 cm), and 2-holes (ID: 0.0148 cm) were used. The mercury penetration lengths in the nozzles were 1.3 cm for the needles and 0.5 cm for the self-fabricated nozzles. The droplets formed from each nozzle maintained stable spherical shape up to 20 cm below the nozzle. The droplet size measurements were within a 10% error range when compared to the Scheele-Meister model estimates. The experimental results show that the Scheele-Meister model for droplet size estimation can be applied to nozzles that stably form droplets in a water-mercury system.

Keywords

Molten salt-liquid metal extraction,Water-mercury,Droplet,Scheele-meister model,Room temperature